The first track on Mondo Drag’s new LP, Occultation of the Light, is called “Initiation”, and its opening moments brought to mind the final song of The Doors’ studio output – that is, of course, “Riders on the Storm”. Superficially, some similarities are obvious, beginning with a whisper-quiet combination of an electric organ motif […]

The Beatles are the most influential band of all time, period. I’m saying “most influential” because it’s a more objective term than “greatest” or whatever, and I want to be clear that this is not a matter of opinion. But once you take them out of the argument, there’s a very healthy 2nd tier of […]

Perhaps without even intending it, Moon Tooth has been able to create a substantial sense of anticipation surrounding the upcoming release of their first full-length, Chromaparagon. For starters, the only bit of music we’ve really had from them prior to this is the 4-track EP Freaks which I’m finding it hard to believe was […]

If there’s ever a genre that can easily convince itself that there’s no necessary requirement for sonic or stylistic variance, that genre might well be doom metal. And from the opening notes of Lycus’ Chasms, we are indeed given the impression that this band’s prime commitment may doubtlessly be to sheer size, to sheer grandiosity, yet […]

In a harrowing gesture of violent iconoclasm, Barren Womb’s latest release Nique Everything begins boldly by beginning quietly. Granted, “quietly” is a relative term when you’re talking about noise rock bands, but all things considered, album opener “Make sure you get yr whole head in front of the shotgun” is deliberate and contained enough […]

Call me crazy, but if we hold off for now on putting this new one in the running, I’d have to say that Yellow & Green is my favorite Baroness album. Of course I’d expect the first two, having attained a greater “classic” status, to have more proponents, as it’s only natural for a […]

The final tack on Grizzlor’s new release, the 7-song, almost-10-minute flash-fuck “Cycloptic”, shows the band as close as I think they’ll ever come to betraying an otherwise constant posture of revulsed pessimism. The song is entitled “Starship Mother Shit,” and, like Black Sabbath’s own album closer “Into The Void,” finds the band ready to […]

About a year ago, Low Fat Getting High insisted on releasing the perfect summer album just in time for winter, and in my review I chewed them the heck out for it. Well, now it’s a year later, and with their debut full-length, French heavy psych quartet Sunder has decided to do […]

“We want it to be a continuation, to be all connected, even if it is different each time.”

As far as current metal bands go, you can’t do much better than Kylesa. They’re approaching veteran status without ever seeming old, and there’s no better indication of this than how good their new, […]

That’s right, it was ME that first put these guys on the same stage, ME who turned the two hottest and heaviest new NY-based bands into the best of biffles, ME who forged the unholy alliance between Moon Tooth and Godmaker that now prepares to ravage its way through the eastern […]

or “Waiting For October: Reflections on the Band that Lives Inside Your TV” by Dave Teodosio

I hate September. T. S. Eliot dubbed April “the cruelest” but September is right up there. It’s the Monday of the months. It triggers a PTSD response to being forced back into the school year. September’s all the […]

Apologies to anyone who hates literature, because it’s happening more and more: I start listening to an album that’s on the review queue, and I’m peremptorily unable to not form some sort of overarching association between that album and the book I happen to be reading at the same time. Maybe I’m projecting, or maybe […]

So I reviewed the new Uncle Acid album a couple of weeks ago, and it was great! The album wasn’t so bad either. Ha! Then this past weekend they played Webster Hall with super-rad Philly bands Ruby the Hatchet and Ecstatic […]

That Ghost so often gets characterized as a “polarizing” band is, I guess, little more than a testament to the fact that some people are petty, like to start arguments, and/or have not yet achieved the level of maturity necessary to understand the nature of “opinion”, as a […]

So right now is actually the perfect time for me to be reviewing the new Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats album, because I just finished reading Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders. It’s a rather famous true crime book, but for those of you who don’t know, it’s the story of […]